64 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBOR ICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a sowing made in 187 1 under the coppice standards, and all the 

 old coppice has been gradually removed. The silver now 

 numbers 2085 to] the acre, measuring some 4255 cub. feet. ; 

 minimum girth at chest-height 5"i inches, maximum 26"4 inches; 

 height of stems 19 ft. 8 ins. to 46 feet; height of boles 13 feet 

 to 23 feet; mean annual production during the last 40 years 

 105-8 cub. feet per acre. 



VI. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is one of the best 

 wooded countries of Europe. 32*2 °/„ (205,907 acres) of the total 

 area is under wood, but of this only 1593 belong to the State, 

 6422 to the Crown, and 125,728 to the communes and public 

 establishments (whose woods, as elsewhere, are worked under 

 State supervision). The south part of the Duchy is a plain ; the 

 north is mountainous (Ardennes), running up to some 1600 feet. 

 Besides hardwoods (beech chiefly) there are the usual conifers 

 (silver fir is scarce), but these have only been introduced since 1840. 

 The latter are out of their true habitat, and though they grow 

 rapidly (and have accordingly relatively inferior quality) they go 

 off quickly from disease unless mixed with beech, when both 

 longevity and quality improve. It has been found that among 

 several exotic conifers tried only the green Douglas succeeds. 

 This species is not exacting, and grows well wherever the spruce 

 will grow. It resists spring frosts, drought and great cold well. 

 In 1907 a spruce plantation on poor, sandy soil succumbed to 

 drought, whereas an adjacent Douglas plantation stood it 

 admirably. The species has been known to stand -11° F. 

 Hitherto the method of treatment (now changed) has been 

 Selection with a 20-25-year cycle. As the crop was not 

 touched in this interval this method has been harmful, because 

 the young growth has been stifled by the upper stage. 



But I think that had an Intermediate operation been 

 prescribed which, while not being a regular regeneration felling, 

 relieved congestion among the stems of the upper stage, and 

 also cut back the stems whose crowns were growing out over 

 existing groups of young growth, the system would not have 

 been at all bad. 



VII. The forests of Corsica cover 16 "/j, of the island, and 

 their area is 430,768 acres, or, deducting rocks and unproductive 

 ground, 346,541 acres. Of this, 326,055 acres are worked by 

 the Forest Service. The actual State forest area is only 115,673 

 acres. More than a third of the island is, apart from the 



